3/29/16

Tucson with Kids {Ben's Bells}

In July of 2015 we spent a week in Tucson, Arizona visiting friends. Tucson is very different from our home in Jacksonville, Florida and the kids had a great time exploring new museums and restaurants. I'll be taking a few posts to review all the fun and exciting things we did in Tucson. You can click here to read through all of them.

Date of Visit: July 2015

Kids: Cole (age 8) & Kiley (age 5)

Length of Stay: 1/2 Day

When I found out we'd be spending a week in Tucson, I knew I wanted to include a trip to the Ben's Bells
studio on our list of things to do. The mission of Ben's Bells is to spread kindness and I have
always wanted to volunteer to paint, so we took everyone and spent an
hour or two at the studio. This was the one thing I really wanted to do when we
were in Tucson and it didn't disappoint. Everyone had a great time, and
we picked up a few souvenirs.

Ben's Bells offers open studio time during which you can go and help out. The day we went they needed us to paint kindness coins. My kids, ages 5 & 8, loved this activity. We visited the Ben's Bells Main Gate studio and the employees were very welcoming and excited to have us. You don't need to call ahead, but I had emailed to make sure they would have something for us. There are lots of other shops and restaurants near the Main Gate studio and you can easily make this a fun day out with the kids.

Admission: It's technically free to volunteer at the Ben's Bells studio, but they do ask you to "bring a buck" as a donation. You can learn more about their open studio hours here.

Tips: I really think this is a great activity for kids of all ages. While we were painting we talked about what it meant to be kind and even bought a few kindness coins to bring back to Florida. Ben's Bells asks that you limit your party size to 6 people or less if you are coming to work during open studio hours. If you'd like to bring a bigger group, just contact them and they'll fit you in. Know that you will get messy!

If you're interested in other things our family did in Tucson, click here. You can also read about all the National Parks we visited while traveling out west by clicking here.